An activity on the theme of classification, taxonomy and evolution. Pair the animals according to similarities!

1. Animal Pairs
An activity on the themes
of classification, taxonomy
and evolution

2. • Try to pair the following
animals according to
similarity
• For example, can you find
two insects? Two birds?

3. Echidnas have fur as well as spines
They have a long, sticky tongue for catching ants and
termites
Echidnas lay eggs
They roll up into a ball and uses their spines to defend
themselves from predators
Echidna

4. Hedgehog
Hedgehogs roll up into a ball and uses their spines to
defend themselves from predators
They have a very strong sense of smell
Hedgehogs will visit your garden if you put a plate of
cat food out for them. If cats steal the food, hedgehogs
also like muesli and Weetabix, but milk is bad for
them!

5. Nautilus
A nautilus is a sea creature that looks like a squid that
lives in a snail shell
They pump gas into empty chambers of its shell to
float, like the swim bladder of a fish
An octopus has 8 tentacles
A squid has 10 tentacles
A nautilus has 90 tentacles!

6. Turtle
Turtles have been living in the seas since before the
dinosaurs
In turtle nests, temperature is used to decide whether
an egg hatches a boy or a girl turtle
Six of the seven turtle species are endangered
Turtles spend all their lives at sea, except to lay eggs

7. Crab
Crabs have teeth in their stomachs
Crabs have ten legs, but the first two grow into claws.
If a crab loses its claw, it can grow another one!
The hard shell of a crab is its skeleton – there are no
bones inside!

8. Snail
The longest snail ever found was 15 inches long
Snail slime is so sticky it allows them to move upside
down and around corners
Every snail is both a boy and a girl
People in France eat snails and call them escargot.
Escargot fast for three days and are then fed only
water and flour for a week before cooking, served
with garlic and butter!

9. Bryozoa
Bryozoa live in water
A single bryozoan is not an independent creature.
Colonies of individuals live together with different jobs,
like the separate organs of a human. Only a colony
lives as an independent creature
Each bryozoan is about 2 mm in size, but colonies can
grow to diameters of 2 feet

10. Archaeopteryx

11. Hagfish
?

12. Worm
Worms have no eyes, but they can sense light! They
cannot move if they are in the light for too long
One field could contain more than one million worms
The longest ever found was 6 and a half metres long

13. Sea Anemone
Sea anemones stick to rocks by an adhesive foot
They have cells that fire harpoons of venom into prey.
This paralyses the food, allowing it to be moved to the
mouth opening
They have nerves, but no brain

14. Butterfly
Butterfly eggs hatch into caterpillars. When they have
grown as much as they can, they transform into a
chrysalis, where they metamorphose into a butterfly
Butterflies are excellent mimics. Some even have
‘eyespots’ on their wings to confuse predators
They have 4 wings and 6 legs

15. Icthyosaur
Icthyosaurs are extinct animals that lived in the sea,
living like dolphins do now
They gave birth to live young
Icthyosaur means ‘fish lizard’
Icthyosaurs had the largest eyes compared to body
length of any known animal.
The largest found was 26 cm in diameter!

16. Platypus
Male platypuses have venomous spurs on their hind
legs
These furry creatures have a bill like a duck, feet like an
otter and a tail like a beaver!
Platypuses lay eggs
They can locate food using electricity

17. Fish
Fish jaws are not attached to their skull
32,000 species of fish have been discovered
Fish can drown
Starfish and jellyfish are not fish
The coelocanth (above) was discovered from fossils
before it was found alive. It is very old, and has limbs
more like reptiles and mammals than fish

18. Shark
Shark skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone
Sharks have eyelids
They breathe using gills
Shark teeth are constantly replaced. Some sharks lose
30,000 teeth in their lifetime
Shark jaws are not attached to their skull

19. Kakapo
Kakapo are a flightless, ground-dwelling parrot from
New Zealand
There are only 126 living kakapo. All live on three
predator-free islands south of the mainland
Males woo females by ‘booming’ in a self-selected
arena
Breeding is dependent on the rimu plant, which fruits
every 2-5 years

20. Polar Bear
Polar bear fur is not white. It is made of clear, hollow
tubes that reflect light, making it look white. Their skin
is actually black!
They can swim 100 miles in one attempt
When swimming, they use their front legs for
propulsion and their hind legs for steering

21. Coral
Coral is a colony of lots of tiny creatures, which have
tentacles, an exoskeleton and a mouth opening
The Great Barrier Reef is a 1,600 mile-long coral system
Coral reefs provide a home for many fish species
Pollution, over fishing and global warming are
threatening the world’s coral reefs

22. Beetle
Beetles have 6 legs and 2 sets of wings
There are more than 300,000 known species of beetle.
One in four living creatures is a beetle
The largest beetle, the Megasoma, can weigh more
than an full size iPod
Beetles eat anything from insects, dust and poo!

23. Blue-footed Booby
Female blue-footed boobies love the colour blue, and
don’t the men know it! When trying to attract the girls,
the males strut, to show off the colour of their feet
The word ‘booby’ comes from the Spanish word ‘bobo’,
which means ‘stupid’

24. Horseshoe Crab
?

25. Mite
Mites are so small that they look like dust. They eat
dead skin that falls off people and their pets. They like
to live in your pillow
Mites have eight legs
Mites can lay 80 eggs at a time
Many people are allergic to dust mite droppings

26. Information for
activity leaders
• This activity can be tailored for any
age group – the level of complexity
can simply be adjusted, with some
cards removed
• The activity can be intensive for
activity leaders as much explanation
about the animals is needed
• There are a number of deliberate
traps and wild cards – e.g. hedgehog
and echidna. Hedgehog and echidna
can be paired according to ecological
niche, but not taxonomically. Use all
cards at your discretion depending
on audience.

27. • Use the Open University Tree of Life
(overleaf) as a guide
• Key terms:
- insects
- fish
- birds
- mammals
- reptiles
- molluscs
- invertebrates
- arthropods
More advanced:
- monotremes
- cnidaria
- protostomes
- deuterostomes
- lophotrochozoa
- ecdysozoa
- parazoa
- metazoa
- bilateria
- radiata
• Note that coral and bryozoa fall either
side of the bilateria/radiata division and
therefore do not pair